1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing a carded and air-laid non-woven composite fabric, and more particularly to a continuous process for producing a non-woven composite fabric in which carding and air-laying are conducted on the same production line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Non-woven fabrics have been extensively used in household and medical applications. For example, such fabric has been used in such products as disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, and surgical clothes. Generally, a non-woven fabric is formed by consolidating multiple layers of different webs. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,245, it is disclosed that a meltblown web is composited with other webs such as spunbonded web, wet-laid web, carded web, and air-laid web. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,251, it discloses an absorbent nonwoven fabric including an absorbent layer and a hydrophobic layer. The absorbent layer can be a rayon web, air-laid web, wet-laid web, or carded rayon web, and the hydrophobic web can be any web-like structural form having an open area.
As mentioned above, a non-woven composite fabric is generally formed by consolidating a multiple layers of webs by calender bonding. The manufacturer for manufacturing webs and that for manufacturing non-woven composite fabric is different. The web manufacturer only manufactures webs and it sells the webs to the non-woven composite fabric manufacturer. The non-woven composite fabric manufacturer buys various appropriate webs from the web manufacturer and then makes the multiple layers of webs consolidated into a non-woven composite fabric.
In recent years, the need for air-laid webs has been increasing. Generally, the main component of an air-laid web is pulp. In order to strengthen the web and for the reason of easy transportation, a considerable amount of thermoplastic polymer, such as thermoplastic PP/PE should be added. In the air-laid web, pulp, rather than thermoplastic PP/PE, is the component that provides absorption. Therefore, use of a large amount of thermoplastic PP/PE will increase the production cost.